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Title 



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DISCOURSE, 




DELIVBBED AT THE 



ELEVENTH ANNIVERSARY 



\^m\. ilitttatian at tlje Mest, 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, POUGHKEEPSIE, N. Y. 
October 29th, 1854. 

/ 

REV. A. D. EDDY, D. D., 

PASTOB OF TITE PAKK PEESBYTERIAN CHURCn, NEWARK, N. J. 




NEW YOEK: 

JOHN F. TROW, PRINTER, 49 ANN STREET 

1855. 




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DISCOURSE 



DELIVERED AT THE 



ELEVENTH ANNIVERSARY 



Imi^ tax tilt '§xm\aim af Collegiate an^ %\ts- 
logital dEMttatmn at t^^ Mest, 



FIKST PEESBYTERIAN OHUROH, POUGHKEEf SIE, N. Y. 
October 29th, 1854. 




y 

REV. A^'dApDY, D. ])., 



BY, 




NEW YOEK: 
JOHN F. TROW, PRINTER, 49 ANN STREET. 






" The thanks of the Board were presented to the Rev. A. D. Eddy, 
D. D., for his Discourse in behalf of the Society, delivered in the First 
Presbyterian Church, on Sabbath evening, and a copy was requested 
for the press." 

An extract from the Minutes of the Proceedings of the Directors 
of the Society for the Promotion of Collegiate and Theological Edu^ 
cation at the West, at their Annual Meeting at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., 
October 31st, 1854. 

E. Smalley, Secretary. 



^ 



DISCOURSE. 



' If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do ?" 

Psalm xi. 3. 



This Psalm was written at a time of peculiar peril 
in the history of David. Enemies were every 
where abroad, and his life even in danger. His 
friends, alarmed for his safety, urged his escape to 
the mountains. For lo, they cried, the wicked bend 
their bow ; they make ready their arrow upon the 
string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in 
heart. If the foundations he destroyed^ what can 
the righteoufi do ? 

The Psalmist nobly replies to their fears. " In 
the Lord put I my trust. How say ye to my soul, 
flee as a bird to your mountain ? The Lord is in his 
holy temple : the Lord's throne is in heaven ; his 
eyes behold ; his eyelids try the children of men. 
The Lord trieth the righteous ; but the wicked and 
him that loveth violence his soul hateth. Upon the 
wicked he shall reign snares, fire and brimstone, and 
an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of 
their cup. For the righteous Lord loveth righteous- 
ness ; his countenance doth behold the upright." 






Though the foundations should be destroyed, 
though the pillars of society should be shaken, and 
amid their ruins it is asked, what have the righteous 
accomplished ? what permanent advantage have they 
secured ? and what is their prospect and hope ? — 
Intelligent confidence in Grod replies. He can lay 
foundations anew — reconstruct from polished stones, 
more costly and solid, his glorious temple. He can 
save his saints amid ruins, and make surrounding 
desolations the memorials of their integrity and wis- 
dom. The giant column, buried in ashes, may tell 
of the skill that wrought it into form and beauty ; 
and gilded domes, falling amid conflagrations, may 
tell of the strength that reared them, and of the 
crowds they sheltered at their altars of devotion. 

The revolutions of ages, the passing away of na- 
tions, governments, and churches, do not and cannot 
destroy the fruits of holy living, nor impair the prin- 
ciples of moral rectitude. The lessons they give, 
with the history of their times, are among our most 
salutary teachings and safest guides. Inspiration is 
indeed full and perfect, and the history of redemp- 
tion, sealed by the blood of the cross, is the burden 
and the richness of the divine record. But the value 
of that inspiration, and the power of that redemp- 
tion, are seen more in the long and varied history 
they have left, than in the doctrines they have 
taught, the precepts embodied, or the startling rev- 
elations given. 

Hence, though we have seen the foundations 
destroyed again and again, the supports of social 
order yielding to the onsets of wickedness and de- 






praved passions ; at theii' fall, amid their ruins, and 
along the sleeping ages of their sepulchre, and even 
from the disinterred memorials of centuries forgot- 
ten, they furnish examples of instruction and encou- 
ragement in righteousness. They no more read to 
us the bloody chapters of crime and death, God's 
consuming judgments, than they reveal the wisdom 
despised, and the infinite value of the protection re- 
jected and lost. 

All is not lost, though the foundations are de- 
stroyed, nor are the righteous left discouraged or 
inactive amid the desolations over which they tread 
in tears. The principles of rectitude borrow new 
illustration, and prompt to new fields of action, where 
other foundations shall be laid of augmented strength 
and beauty. 

From the past of other nations, it is with mingled 
emotions that we contemplate the future of our own. 
Every new view that we take of this country awak- 
ens a livelier interest, if not actual astonishment. 
In its extent and rapid advances it exceeds all our 
calculations. Who ever dreamed of its developments, 
and the rapidly extending circle of its jurisdiction ? 
Its arts and arms, its commerce, and vast enterprise 
in every quarter of the globe, no one expected so 
soon to witness. 

It is in the memory of many before me, when 
this commonwealth was a frontier territory, and na- 
tive barbarians held the control of its central locah- 
ties. Fifty years ago there was nothing but a narrow 
line of light along the shores of the Atlantic, casting 
its rays, scarce at all, into the dark interior. A 



W'SmSmmm 




change, as by magic, has come ; and we can hardly 
calculate the steps of its rapid advance. And though 
participating in the causes and agencies that wrought 
this change, we stand astonished at what has been 
done ; and but for its undeniable reality, we could 
scarcely credit the vast achievement. That New 
England should be but as a province, and all the 
Atlantic States but as the residuum of a mighty 
people, who, turning their footsteps from the home 
of their fathers, should so soon traverse the vast 
continent, leaving all along their way traces of their 
power, and now hold intercourse, from the almost 
illimitable shores of the western sea, with the thou- 
sands they have left behind ; awakening the admira- 
tion of all the oriental world, and proffering a home 
and affluence to millions on millions of men in suffer- 
ing and bondage, is all but miracle. 

The providences that have led on these wonders, 
and those elastic energies that have combined to 
achieve them, awaken our admiration, and teach us 
what are the resources, the true mission, and the 
responsibilities of the American people, as a free, 
Christian, and Protestant nation. And as clearly 
do they indicate the dangers to which we are ex- 
posed, and summon us to a watchful fidelity against 
them. 

We have proudly regarded this land as our 
inheritance, remote from other lands, in happy isola- 
tion, and exempt from the perils of other countries ; 
that we were free from responsibilities as to the na- 
tions abroad, as from their invasion and control. 
But time and providences have summoned us into 






the broad arena of the world's activities, and at 
once to participate in the agencies that shall settle 
its destiny. 

Our far-speaking example ; the direct action of 
national diplomacy and of our Christian missionaries 
abroad, have done more to create and advance moral 
and political changes and improvements in the world 
during the last fifty years, than almost all other 
causes combined. Light is every where pervading : 
moral causes are asserting their ascendency, and the 
great questions of freedom and Protestant piety are 
becoming vital and controlling. The popular mind 
is every where vigorously at work, and though sup- 
pressed in its action by the power of arbitrary will, 
and its voice for a time subdued, it cannot be silenced, 
nor long controlled, no more than you can bind the 
tides of the sea, or suppress the earthquake when 
internal fires are once enkindled. 

The anxious, agitated mind of the world's neces- 
sities, seems now to be turned imploringly, and with 
its last hope, to this favored land of ours, asking not 
only an asylum for the fleeing victims of oppression, 
but for some boon of mercy to be extended to the 
millions that cannot flee. 

If this country shall fail in its free institutions — 
in its self-government and Protestant religion — in 
advancing the mental and moral condition of the 
world, where is there hope? A sad retrogression 
must ensue, and the human race groan for ages still. 

In order to fulfil our mission, and guard from 
the evils that have ruined other nations, we must be 
watchful of perils, wise and early, in the selection 
and attainment of permanent security. 



8 



vmM 



There is an immoderate activity, rasli adventure 
and enterprise, a resolute determination to be rich, 
an enlarged commerce, a military spirit, costly ex- 
penditures, pleasure and luxury, scarcely ever paral- 
leled. There are other exposures, which, for the ul- 
timate good to be attained, we are willing to meet. 
There is the rapid accession of a foreign, ignorant, 
and degraded population. There are many domestic 
questions, sectional interests, and diversities of senti- 
ment crowding upon us. There is popery and sla- 
very, infidelity and social licentiousness, vast party 
and political ambition, rival and reckless every where. 
These are incident to our state and relations. They 
demand our regard and wise activity ; but they are 
not essentially, nor at all, subversive of our virtue 
or integrity, but will yield in their time to ripe action 
and vigorous morality. 

It becomes us to inquire what are the remedies 
for existing evils, and what the security of the good 
we would seek to enjoy and to do ? 

We need that power that shall go behind all 
outward tendencies to pride, extravagance and pub- 
lic corruption ; which shall act on the great principle 
of evil, and which shall give to men self-denial and 
self-control, and rule the heart ; which shall rightly 
educate and guide the dominant passions of our na- 
ture — subjugate to the sway of rectitude and truth 
the moral constitutions of men. 

This is not to be found in the arts and industry 
of civilized life, nor in the enlargement and resources 
of commerce, nor in political and civil organizations, 
nor in any peculiar arrangement of the social state. 




9 



Nor is this power, with its remedies and securities, 
to be found in intellectual culture, to whatever ex- 
tent it may be carried. We add further, these secu- 
rities are not found even in intellectual culture when 
under religious control. 

We admit the power of the religious element. 
It is seen, not alone in the stern endurance of the 
Christian martyr, but in the indomitable crusade, the 
zeal of a blind superstition, and the sacrifice of an 
inveterate paganism. 

We need religion always. It is essential to every 
permanent good. But in order to make even true 
piety permanent and pervading for good, there must 
be an intellectual and religious culture so united and 
extended as effectually to cure the blindness of pa- 
ganism, check the madness of superstition, raise the 
popular mind above false refuges and formalities, 
and which shall take away the heart from all inade- 
quate dependencies, and rest it alone and intelligent 
on the right arm of an omnipotent righteousness. 

We need intellectual culture, prompted and 
controlled by a right religion the divine 

ECONOMY OF THE GoSPEL OF OhRIST. 

We have met on the eleventh anniversary of 
" The Society for the Promotion of Collegiate and 
Theological Education at the West." The nature of 
this association and the object it contemplates, natu- 
rally lead us to consider the securities which are 
created by general intellectual culture, when prompt- 
ed and controlled by evangelical piety. 

The history of nations for centuries, the present 
aspect of the world, with every existing good, and 



■»i 



10 



prospect for the future, forcibly direct us to this 
Source of our security. 

We would speak cautiously, and not at all se- 
verely, of the many devices of men to cure the evils 
of this world, by discussions out of the range of the 
Bible, by agitations above the excitements of religion, 
by combinations beyond the circle of the church, 
and by reliance on power and agencies not of God 
nor spiritual. But I would ask, if, after all these, 
there has not been found the steady current of a 
mysterious and uncontrollable Providence, moving 
on under the guidance of fixed principle, deep, 
spiritual and independent, fed by the changeless law 
and precepts of the Bible, made wise and powerful 
by that Omnipotent Spirit which ever pervades and 
attends it ? And while it recognized and commended 
as auxiliary, and generously accepted and crowned all 
the proffers of a wise and human agency, it left this 
agency, often, if not always, when acting by itself, dis- 
honored and useless, like those chafing winds, rush- 
ing with confusion and noise, yet affecting not at all 
the deep current that moves in undisturbed majesty 
beneath them. 

I have been astonished to see how much has 
been done out of the church, and above the Bible 
and religion, to effect moral changes, which has 
seemed for a time to work almost with the charm of 
miracle — sometimes with the enthusiasm of madness, 
rousing nations as by storm, yet passing away, and 
leaving the great landmarks of truth and righteous- 
ness, and even the moral habits and condition of 
men as they were before ; the work of evangelizing, 



11 



elevating and saving men yet to be done, and to be 
done in the same tried way that God by patriarchs 
and prophets, by Christ and his apostles, has marked 
out for us. And we are happy to fall back upon those 
deep-laid principles of truth and duty, the Word of 
God, the Gospel of his grace ; and while watching 
the providence he opens, we would hasten to apply 
those principles, unfold those doctrines, and urge the 
precepts they enjoin, and summon the church to her 
work of sharing with Christ and his Father in the 
sublime achievement of a world's conversion, and in 
the glory that shall crown the issue. It is here that 
we are falling in with that deep current of Providence 
in redemption, that is moving on the destinies of the 
world to the consummation of the kinsfdom of Christ. 
In estimating the value and efficiency of the 
security in question, we are naturally led to review 
the history of those men and those times which have 
been most distinguished for efforts to advance gene- 
ral intelligence under the control of evangelical piety ; 
or rather, whose religious sentiments and principles 
have prompted to the most vigorous efforts for the 
advancement of general intellectual culture. They 
form a distinct and peculiar class, the light of whose 
example no time can cloud, and the result of whose 
agency all future ages will more and more prize. 

So marked are the sentiments and principles of 
this class of men, so permanent their influence on the 
popular mind and on national character, as clearly to 
identify them with the most intelligent and valued 
advances of society. They have been identified with 
the learning and religion of the continent of Europe, 



12 



as well as with all the popular privileges and civil 
liberty which that continent has ever known. They 
were identified with the great reformations of Eng- 
land ; with the unsurpassed glory of Scotland, and 
all constitutional law ; with popular education every 
where, and the highest culture of spiritual piety. 

In searching for the immunities of the world in 
education, law, government, and religion, we are 
conducted invariably to the Reformers of Central 
Europe ; to the Puritan Dissenters of England and. 
Scotland, those undying exponents and advocates of 
evangelical piety. The great army of martyrs has 
been recruited from their ranks, and their heroic 
deeds are left imperishable in the thousand memo- 
rials that still grace the lands of their labors, their 
sufferings, and their blood. To this class, England, 
says her great historian, owes all the liberty she 
enjoys. 

It is unnecessary to say, that these men had pecu- 
liar sentiments and principles, from which spring, 
not alone their integrity of character, firmness of 
purpose, and ardent piety ; but these settled their 
views and principles of social life, and determined 
their rights and their duties as to 'the laws and insti- 
tutions of the state ; tliey were indeed a 'peculiar 
people^ zealous of good worhs. Their piety was the 
natural result of their evangelical sentiments, incul- 
cating an implicit reliance on the Divine Spirit for 
all good ; and that piety prompted to enlarged and 
vigorous efirorts for the intellectual t;ulture, civil 
liberties, and personal elevation of their fellow-men. 

The age in which they lived was as peculiar as 



»liitl?^S^^"K^:--^ 



13 



their sentiments and principles were decided and 
unyielding. And where, but from tliese men, tlirougli 
all that eventful period of darkness and oppression, 
was there the least hope of the world's salvation 
from ignorance, despotism, and sin ? 

The Papal church had been working her dark 
and delirious way for ages, and though boastful of 
knowledge and her teachings : whom did she make 
wise? — of her power: whom did she free? — of 
her spirituality : whom did she reform and save ? 
Where in all her history has she been the educator 
and religious reformer of men ? What of personal, 
civil or religious good can be gathered in her name 
from the entire masses of the human family ? Her 
light has been darkness ; her freedom, chains ; the 
life she inspired, death itself. The obstacles she has 
thrown in the way of light, the elevation and saving 
of the world, are incomparably more formidable 
than the darkness of paganism, and the utter debase- 
ment of the savage state. 

The partially reformed churches, and the states 
protecting them on the continent of Europe, afforded 
some temporary relief ; and the promise they once 
gave the world, from their cherished spiiit and power, 
to reform and save, was as the boon of Heaven to 
suffering humanity. But what have they accom- 
plished since the time of the Reformation ? 

Of the Protestant families of England we would 
speak with respect ; yet we look in vain for that 
popular education, general intelligence, and equality 
of civil and religious rights which it is the mission 
of Christianity to secure, and which we believe it is 
destined to achieve. 



14 



Professing to embrace the principles of evangeli- 
cal piety, we, of all others, are bound to understand 
the obligations which they impose, and the immuni- 
ties they would give. From the developments of 
two hundred years, we are left in no doubt as to 
their value. We have seen their vigorous action on 
the continent of Europe, in England and Scotland, 
circumscribed and retarded as they have there 
been. 

It was by men of evangelical sentiments, taught 
by a careful observation and long experience, that 
the foundation of our free churches was laid ; as 
favorable, if not essential to their growth and energy, 
they demanded a free government. For the security 
of both their church and their government, they as 
early laid the basis of free schools, for the immediate 
culture of the popular mind. And for the support 
of their primary schools, they laid, almost in the 
primitive forests of this land, foundations for their 
colleges ; no more expecting their primary schools 
to live and flourish without them, than that the 
planets would still shine were the sun stricken from 
the sky. 

It was no incident nor accident that our fathers 
established their higher seats of learning. It was 
from a wise calculation of their necessity for that 
popular education and growth of mind, which not 
only their religion inculcated, but the structure of 
their church and the nature of their government 
demanded. Both the command of their Lord, and 
the charity of their religion, made it imperative on 
them to secure for all the means of intellectual cul- 






15 



ture, as being consistent with and demanded by the 
faith of their adoption, and demanded by its saving 
purposes. 

This faith so vigorous every where, and so essen- 
tial to the intellectual impi-ovement, as well as the 
salvation of men, we should well analyze and well 
understand. 

1. It recognizes man every where as involved in 
sin, so alienated from God and so deeply depraved, 
that there are found in the heart no elements of self- 
restoration and no desire to seek it. 

2. There is also recognized in this system of 
faith, instructions and methods of relief suited to the 
necessities of man universally, appealing to their in- 
tellectual perceptions, as the only way of reaching 
and saving the soul. 

3. This faith enjoins on all that embrace it, a 
personal responsibility to provide for its spread; 
to teach it to all men ; to open through the broad 
surface of the earth fountains of knowledge ; to plant 
stars of divine light in every sky. To the recipients 
of this faith there comes the Divine command, " Go 
teach all nationsy 

4. And while man's nature is too dark and de- 
praved for any human power to save ; and divine 
truth, though teaching all knowledge, inadequate to 
such a purpose ; their reliance is on a Divine, Omni- 
potent agency, ever present, and pledged to save. 
It is not by human wisdom, nor by the power of 
truth, nor by ordinances, that they are stimulated. 
It is that sublime announcement of the Son of God, 
" All power is given unto me, in heaven and on earth ; 



16 



ill 



go ye therefore^ teach all nations ; lo, I am with you 
always even to the end of the world." 

In these four elements, we find the secret of that 
power, activity and success, that has attended the 
class of men of which we speak, and which leads us 
to regard the advocates and exponents of their sen- 
timents and principles as the educators and saviours 
of the world ; the men that might truly and effi- 
ciently administer the economy of grace. 

And more specially so, as theirs is a system 
based on revealed i/i'uth^ whose saving benefits are 
secured only by a perception of its excellence, its 
provision, and requirements ; having precepts as well 
as doctrines ; personal duties as well as positive 
revelations, it addresses itself to thought, reflection, 
and decision ; simple in its teachings, yet sublime in 
its principles ; beautifully compared to the stream 
issuing from the crystal throne, having shallows that 
a babe might wade, yet depths that angels cannot 
fathom. 

This system of truth courts investigation, delights 
in evidence, and defies refutation. It has stood be- 
fore the world for ages ; encountered the proudest 
champions of infidelity, ever rising ascendant, and 
bringing the resources of science to its aid ; and by 
its own intelligent issues crowning "itself with im- 
perishable honors. It has a future to achieve as well 
as its present eminence to maintain. And it is by 
the truth perceived, understood, and accepted, as 
sustained by argument and endeared by its issues, 
that either can be achieved or maintained. It is not 
from the education and intelligence of the past alone, 



'^■""""""WMHIIIIW 



17 



but by tlie increased intelligence and more ample 
education of the present and tlie future, that we are 
to realize and enjoy what the truth and grace of God 
would o^ive. 

With these four elements of divine truth, and 
the intelligent investigation they invite and en- 
courage, we meet at once the most striking peculi- 
arity of the system, — its mcarious chardcter of the 
atonement it reveals. To this its advocates have 
uniformly and strongly adhered. As the atonement, 
by substitution, laid the basis of this system, its 
benefits are secured only as foreign aid comes to our 
relief Hence all believers in this system, relying 
on Christ and extraneous aid for their own salvation, 
are bound and constrained to extend lis^ht and sal- 
vation to all. Their very principles summon them 
to the work of instructing and saving men; and 
from the charity inspired, they are ready and anx- 
ious for its achievement. 

Where, then, shall we look but to men of these 
evangelical sentiments for the education of the 
world ? To men, who, resting their own hopes on 
intelligent piety, are conscious of duty to educate 
and save their race through the divine arrangement 
of religious teaching — a teaching that brings the 
mind and the heart into immediate connection with 
divine truth and the Spirit of God, — that shall 
make of the entire man an intelligent and useful 
Christian, capable of appreciating privileges, meet- 
ing the divine claims, and executing the purposes of 
the Redeemer ? We have nowhere else to look. 



18 



There are tendencies in human nature, and lia- 
bilities from the structure of society as it has here- 
tofore existed, against which nothing will effectually 
guard but general intelligence under the control of 
evangelical piety. For the want of this, there have 
been not only fearful retrogressions of intellectual 
character, but the most melancholy declensions of 
public morality. 

While the culture of the intellect has never been 
sufficient to secure the useful advances of society, 
the religion of no age has been sufficient to with- 
stand those tendencies and liabilities to which we 
have alluded. 

We have never doubted the piety of the early 
Christians ; yet the corruptions of the church were 
rapid and wide, and she soon went into an eclipse 
of ages. Nor have we ever doubted the piety of 
• the Reformers ; yet they revived and continued the 
speculations of the schools. Leaving the more ex- 
perimental and practical of Christianity, they sought 
civil immunities and patronage for their support. 
They receded from the evangelical and spiritual to 
the outward and the formal ; trusting more to the 
ritual and official, than to the teaching of truth and 
the inspirings of the Holy Ghost. They did not 
divorce the church from the world ; nor intention- 
ally separate religion from learning ; but they per- 
mitted the world to subordinate the church, and 
the light of learning to outshine the radiance of 
religion. Though the Word of God and the teach- 
ings of religion were not formally excluded from 
their seats of learning, the experimental power was 



19 



gone, and the practical benefits of a spiritual ascen- 
dency unknown. 



Evangelical sentiments, for a time, worked vigor- 
ously on the continent of Europe, confronting infi- 
delity and superstition. They sent their cheering 
light and benign influence to the land of our fathers. 
Yet the Keformation, with all the intelligence and 
piety that gave it birth, utterly failed to make ad- 
vances. It actually receded, till from entire gov- 
ernments its principles were discarded ; its disciples 
exiled or martyred. 

We need not say how far this arrest of the 
Reformation, and the decay of religion, were caused 
by the corruption or loss of evangelical sentiments. 
But we know these sentiments did die away, and 
spiritual religion became greatly corrupted. The 
sources of science, literature, and general intelligence 
became more and more restricted. Thous^h some 
few radiating centres remain to relieve the darkness, 
the light emanating has been cold, cheerless, and 
often baleful. Though the Word of God has not 
been discarded, its inspiration has been denied; 
its evangelical character disowned ; its saving power 
lost ; and those divine agencies of grace and salva- 
tion that should ever attend it are unknown. We 
now look in vain for that private piety and public 
virtue which once adorned the universities and 
schools of Europe. Through that broad and popu- 
lous continent, the promise the Reformation gave 
has never been realized. Popular ignorance, infi- 
delity, and false religion ; the denial of human 



^^m 



WMMM 



20 



riglits ; and governmental oppression, are now every 
where apparent, if not as fearful and wide as when 
the Reformation first dawned. 

A happier experiment and richer success at- 
tended the progress of evangelical piety in England 
and Scotland ; and no period of the British history 
is more bright and honorable than that, in which 
the sources of general intelligence and popular edu- 
cation were multiplied and enriched under the ad- 
ministration of the Puritans. The principles of civil 
liberty were now deeply and most firmly laid in the 
national constitution, and a permanent check given 
to the abuses 6f arbitrary power. Light was now 
struck out from the darkness of ages, never again to 
be wholly obscured. 

That so many men of evangelical sentiments, 
the advocates and patrons of popular education and 
gene'ral intelligence, not to say ardent lovers of civil 
liberty, lived at an eventful period, and that they 
were compelled to remain in England, has been her 
safety and her glory ; but for these men, England 
might now be what the continent of Europe is, if 
not as the darker provinces of the papacy. Though 
she has not a place in all her kingdom for the ashes 
of Cromwell to rest, it is well for her, that, as his 
flight to these shores was arrested, she had for him 
a throne and a crown to grace. From his renown 
she dates her high career, and writes the brightest 
of her history. 

What the Puritans have done for England, for 
Europe, and the world, should never be forgotten ; 
nor should we overlook the secret of their power, 






31 



nor the instrumentalities of their wide success. Nor 
should we be unmindful of those adverse influences 
that have so often succeeded, and checked the 
growth and advance of their invaluable principles. 

We do not call in question the piety of the 
present age ; nor would we intimate that there has 
passed out of the public mind a conviction of the 
value of religion as a controlling element of popular 
education ; but we fear, greatly, an inordinate 
worldly enterprise, and early rush to the active 
employments of life, without adequate intellectual 
culture; and we fear, too, that when intellectual 
culture is sought, the speculative and the philosophic 
may hold too great an ascendency over the religious, 
if not be separated from it, in the training of the 
popular mind. This is seen not alone in driving the 
Scriptures from the common school, and the service 
of prayer; in reducing the biblical studies and re- 
ligious culture of our colleges ; in making, in some 
instances at least, theological seminaries nurseries of 
intellectual excellence, rather than seats of sacred 
science, of spiritual endowments, and holy equipment 
for the conquest of souls. 

It is difficult to express what we mean, or to 
write for the age to read exactly what we fear. 
The past loudly admonishes us that there can be 
nothing more important for us, at the present time, 
than the securing of right educational institutions, 
with securities against their perversion and abuse. 
They are not only to educate those who are to fill 
our pulpits, and supply the professions ; but they 
will shape all their habits of thought and investiga- 



.:¥"''^\i4: 



22 



tion. Wbat these institutions are for intellectual 
culture and religious influence, our future preachers 
will be as to their power over the public mind, and 
their success in winning souls to Christ. The moral 
bearing of other professions, and, indeed, the entire 
aspect of society, as to its mental habits and moral 
associations, will be more affected by these institu- 
tions than by almost all other causes combined. 

To meet the demands of business, and to bear 
safely the responsibilities which vast trusts impose^ 
a maturity and strength of judgment are required, 
which education, under right moral principle, alone 
can give. Nothing but this can allay the fears and 
distrust coming over us, from the frauds and failures, 
so multiplied and gigantic at the present day^ and 
restore that integrity and confidence so essential to 
the public security and advance. 

In pride of our present privileges and posses- 
sions, we may not sufficiently provide for the future, 
regarding ourselves as having passed beyond the 
causes before which other nations and churches have 
fallen. We have indeed securities which they never 
knew ; but these may fail us. There is no law of 
progress or permanence that makes them sure to us. 
The future traveller across these fields so rich with 
sunlight and promise, may search our history amid 
ashes, mausoleums, and buried palaces. Egypt was 
once the cradle of science and the nursery of arts, 
where centered all of earthly excellence, and shone 
brightly the treasured trophies of an illustrious 
age. It is doubtful whether we have any just 
conception of those ancient times, of the wonders 



§Pi".^:/V' 



— f-^'Tr"""" 



23 



then wrouglit, or of the nature of those countries 
where these scripture scenes were laid. It is not 
over the scorched soil of a desert Africa that we are 
led, or along the banks of that mysterious river 
now so deserted ; it is not amid the dishonored 
memorials of decayed grandeur, that have slept 
for ages, nor by the sand-buried base of the immor- 
tal pyramids, solitary and deserted of life as of the 
power that reared them, that we are conducted. 
Nor are we to encamp with straggling caravans amid 
deserted tombs, our slumbers broken by the mid- 
night alarms of the desert beasts. Oh, no ! but we 
are to go along the rich and well watered plains, 
teeming with their millions, and enter that rival of 
all cities, with her hundred gates, the first metropo- 
lis of arts and science, the mysterious cradle of doc- 
trines that ruled the world for ages. Egypt, and 
Syria, with her hundred cities — Balbec, with her 
temples, and towers of massive rock, skilled into 
architectural excellence, which modern science can 
scarcely conceive or art execute — Nineveh, with her 
gigantic wonders — and Babylon, of wasted palaces 
of all but miracle — unite to throw around those 
ages of Egyptian and Eastern scenes a charm of in- 
stinctive admiration. We are not referred to an age 
in which there was no virtue, nor true religion. An 
age that can present the matchless drama of the Book 
of Job, the laws and government of Israel, with all 
the recorded triumphs of sacred truth, cannot be an 
age destitute of learning and religion. 

You may cross the sea, instructed by the Roomed 
towers of Zion, and warned by the wide ruins of 









24c 



Judea, and visit Greece, and Rome, and fhe cities 
where flourislied science and all arts, and where reli- 
gion under Christ held a glorious sway, till all kings 
paid it reverence, and it ruled the throne that ruled 
the world. • But what is now here save darkness and 
death ? 

And modern times read to us salutary admoni- 
tions. You go along the sweet waters of Geneva, 
and the voices of her illustrious evangelists are not 
heard as of old. Traverse all of southern Europe, 
and you find no crowds from pentecostal chambers 
to swell the army of martyrs. You ask in vain for 
the families of the Huguenots and the Lollards. 
You may cross the beautiful lands of Belgium, and 
track the whole field of Caesar's wars, where the Re- 
formation wrought wonders, and Luther, with holy 
coadjutors, sleeps ; and with all of personal piety 
that may still remain, you meet moral ruins every 
where, cruel despotism, and the groaning of the na- 
tions struggling to be free. 

I have lingered here, not because we are fasci- 
nated, admiring the memorials of science, literature, 
arts and arms unparalleled, with the vestiges of a 
pure evangelical religion, enshrined amid ghostly 
superstitions, cherishing the hope of a speedy re- 
formation ; I have done it to show that no religion, 
arts, science, literature and refinement, are such se- 
curities as will inevitably transmit their own guar- 
antees from age to age ; and more, to be advised how 
these guarantees may be carried along to coming 
generations, with their inestimable immunities ; to 
show what government, what popular education, 
what religion are demanded. 






|| yr»Tir»p» 



25 



Standing as we do, and believing as we do, with 
all the lights of history shining on our path, there 
is an infinite obligation resting upon us, an infinite 
privilege granted us, from the sentiments we em- 
brace, from the nature of our government, and the 
peculiarity of our religious faith. We do not sufiS- 
ciently realize that these are the sentiments that 
found their way to the cloister of "Wittenberg, and 
from the chained Bible of its altar, pervaded the 
mind and heart of that great man, who erelong 
awaked the sensibilities of a nation, and sent an elec- 
tric shock through a continent. 

We have alluded to the check given to the Ee- 
formation in Central Europe. And what ignorance, 
superstition and oppression have returned and reign- 
ed there for two hundred years, and still hold their 
dark dominion over millions of souls? Had the 
coadjutors and successors of Luther given their ener- 
gies to popular education and the spread of evangel- 
ical sentiments, carrying out the principles on which 
the Eeformation started, what degradation and suf- 
fering had been stayed, — what release come to suffer- 
ing humanity from the powers of darkness and the 
Man of Sin? 

Had England perfected the Reformation in her 
borders, and given free scope to evangelical princi- 
ples, to all her people education and equality of 
rights, she had not now seen Ireland her annoyance 
and disgrace, and one half her population ignorant 
and degraded. Her vast dependencies had been con- 
ducted to intelligent freedom, her throne and church 



26 



had not stood the price of poverty, ignorance, and 
the toil of millions. 

With the example of England and the continent 
before us, and the history of our Puritan ancestors, 
together with the sentiments and principles in our 
hands from which the world has ever received her 
elevation and advancement, her liberties and true 
piety, we have a field for their exercise and activity, 
free from the barring that old systems, hereditary 
rights and dynasties had raised in opposition as walls 
of adamant. And we cannot but see the necessity 
of their light, immediate, and constant application. 
Their arrest and exile abroad, their sanction and 
culture by our Puritan fathers, with new and most 
appropriate localities for their exercise where millions 
are rising to enjoy them, impose on us a sacred trust, 
demanding our immediate and unwearied activity in 
the use of appropriate means which God has put 
into our hands for the permanent growth and good 
of this country. The mind of the nation is awake, 
demanding it, and the heart of the nation pleads for 
it ; the infinite intei'ests of posterity and the world 
plead for it ; liberty and religion unite their voice, 
and God himself, from the Cross of his dying Son, 
bids us to the work. 

"We are now, as evangelical Christians, to this 
counti'y and to the world indeed, what the Keform- 
ers were to Europe, what the Puritans were to Eng- 
land, and what our Fathers were to us. We be- 
lieve that the sentiments and principles in question 
are the light of the world, the salt of the earth ; 
that from them spring those elastic energies and that 
divine power which are to save the world. 






27 



If we fail in this trust, intelligence, virtue and 
piety must be arrested, and civil liberty turn back 
again, to the grief and despair of millions. It may 
be so. The foundations we lay may be destroyed, 
though laid in wisdom and prayer. They will be, if 
intelHgent piety does not guard them — guard them, 
too, by the virtuous energies of educated masses, 
giving to the popular mind a perception of their 
excellence, and to the popular heart an attachment 
to their sacredness and worth. But oh ! what fearful 
lessons would this failure teach ! what ruin spread ! 
what wrecks of ha2:)piness and hope ! what wailings 
would go up from a dying world, filling heaven with 
wonder and mystery at the ways of God — demand- 
ing from the despair of men and the amazement of 
angels, some new assurance that the redemption of 
Christ and the world should come. Where, where, 
from the ruins of our government and churches, can 
the eyes of the world ever be directed for relief? 

We should continually bear in mind, that there 
are causes combining with the intercourse and acti- 
vities of the age, which strongly urge to a fearful 
crisis, wherever the controlling power of intelligent 
moral principle is wanting. Education will be 
sought. It will be had. Shall it be broad, catho- 
lic and Christian, or narrow, sectarian and Papal? 
Sectarian it is too much already, obtruding forms, 
dogmas and ceremonies, to the neglect of essential 
truths; and this, for the ends of denominational 
growth, rather than mental culture and Christian 
piety. Papal, too, it will be, and Jesuitical, on the 






broader ground whicli a narrow sectarianism will 
not reach. If we do not build colleges at tlie West, 
tlie Jesuit will. He wlio once traversed tlie dense 
forests and the broad prairies, and along the mighty 
rivers, to make proselytes of savages and to baptize 
barbarians, will not be slow to build altars anew, 
when the captivating light of a subtle science, and 
free teaching, and soothing errors, shall win unsus- 
pecting millions, and bribe into fatal alliance. Let 
it be our mission and design to go before the secta- 
rian and the papist, and do for the West what has 
been done for us. 

In summoning the friends of learning and evan- 
gelical piety to the work to which this Society is 
pledged, we refer to the value of education, under 
the control of religious principles, as seen in Central 
Europe, in England and Scotland, and more specially 
to the noble example and stern virtues of our Pil- 
grim fathers, who so early and wisely laid the foun- 
dations for their higher seats of learning ; thus secur- 
ing to us the invaluable inheritance of our civil and 
religious rights. 

We would point to the many colleges at the East 
and in the older settlements of our country, as yet, 
free from all denominational restrictions, and pur- 
suing nobly their catholic vocation. The great ma- 
jority of the youth now in jDrocess of education are 
attached to these institutions ; and it is by such col- 
leges as these, reared at the West, that we would 
arrest the advances of bigotry and sect, and keep 
down the assumptions and arrogance of the papacy. 
There is an immediate demand for them. We all 



STfA I •>.*"'■ '•;.■' /. ■ '■■J iv . ' 



29 



perceive the rapidly growing numbers and power of 
the West. In those political agitations, from which 
vast issues must flow — those great pecuniary inter- 
ests, after whose prizes, multitudes so eagerly press ; 
and that sectional pride, perilling every social good, 
we find a necessity for calm judgment and moral 
principle every where, which popular education and 
true religion alone can give. 

New theories of law and government are con- 
stantly raised ; ancient usages are set aside ; novel- 
ties, progress, experiment, destiny are urged ; withal, 
doubtful principles of moral rectitude and adminis- 
tered justice ; till fearful weakness has come, and the 
prison and the scaffold have lost their terrors, from 
almost the assurance of escaping them. Even the 
death of the felon is shorn of its ignominy and de- 
spair, from the paraded romance of the adventure 
that led to it, or the boasted hoj^e of heaven that 
crowns it. 

Advancing to higher grounds, where we might 
expect settled principles, we find conflicting theories 
and hazardous speculations. Even biblical science, 
and interpretation, and the very facts of inspiration 
are becoming questions to be reconsidered. And 
when the basis of our evangelical faith cannot be 
spoken, there are the conflicts of the philosophy of 
religion. 

These conflicts of opinion, and pernicious theoriz- 
ings, are fast dividing the families of Christ, and 
augmenting the already too numerous sections of the 
church ; sending jealousy, suspicion, and rivalship, 
to the annoyance of the good, not only, but to the 
disturbance and peril of our social state. 



■y '" J '7^ 



'''iiKtitmmmmmKlmiitmamKttttKm 



30 



There are tendencies, if not a clear disposition to 
terminate the lono: and successful efforts of a co- 
operative Christianity, which our literary and reli- 
gious institutions have cherished, and by which the 
social elements and generous spirit of our common 
faith have so long been cultivated and crowned. 

To all this, sectarianism, ultra and radical, spurn- 
ing the settled principles of truth, and pretending to 
discoveries more excellent and spiritual, has risen in 
the pulpit, and the learned professions, and pervaded 
every order of intellect, from the governor and judge 
to the vulgar scoffer, led away from intelligent per- 
ception of truth and piety by ignorant and absurd 
pretensions. All this, acting on the popular mind, 
will tend greatly to form the character of those who 
are to come after us ; and there is nothing that can 
effectually guard from the evils that will ensue, but 
popular education on Christian principles. 

The many gigantic evils that have arisen in this 
country, whether in the church or the state, have 
generally sprung from the force of strong, uncul- 
tivated minds ; and from ardent, impulsive, and mis- 
guided sensibilities. Strong minds, without educa- 
tion, are most arrogant, daring, and dangerous. And 
even strong moral and religious principle, with un- 
educated intellect, is always liable, from misguided 
zeal and a false benevolence, to obtrude measures, 
to press reforms and innovations, unsuitable as to 
time, if not subversive of truth and order. 

Whether you look at the science of medicine, to 
the seat of the jurist, to the halls of legislation, or to 



31 



the pulpit, practices to be deplored, laws and mea- 
sures to be deprecated, sentiments and usages that 
have corrupted truth, and crushed the best interests 
of humanity and the hopes of piety, have almost 
uniformly sprung, either from uneducated intellect, 
destitute of moral principle, or from ardent religious 
sentiment, without education adequate to enlighten 
and control. 

Had men of this character been trained to men- 
tal discipline, under religious influence, they had 
been the ornaments and guides of their generation ; 
while now, the good they may have done has often 
served to augment the evil that has ensued. There 
may be solitary, uneducated men, with a deep piety, 
who have served well their country and the church ; 
and that good service may have charmed and cheated 
mto activity and our confidence, many more, whose 
lives and labors have bequeathed harvests of cala- 
mity. 

While we have fears for the church and the 
country from uneducated intellect in its vigorous 
activities, we have entire confidence in those securi- 
ties that popular education gives when guided by 
evangelical piety. And it is from this conviction, 
that we seek to plant colleges every where, which 
shall be nurseries of piety as well as of literature 
and science. 



We have a fair illustration of our principles in 
the colleges of England and Scotland, the only land 
of the East that has at all escaped the moral and 
political evils of which we speak. In the time of 






82 



tlie Reformation, and especially of the Common- 
wealth under Cromwell, these universities and col- 
leges were the nurseries of science under the highest 
religious control. And the results of that illustrious 
age, England and the world are enjoying to this 
hour. But for the intellectual and religious culture 
of that age, seen pre-eminent in the noble army of 
Puritans that were kept at home, the fate of the 
Reformation had been sealed, and piety eclipsed in 
England as on the continent. The schools, colleges, 
and universities of the British Islands at this time, 
under the control of the Puritans, were the suns and 
stars of that memorable age, in whose fadeless light, 
we and all Christendom still walk and rejoice. 

It was at this period, that England, so greatly 
under the influence of evangelical religion, secured 
the basis of her present liberty, and the permanent 
growth of her matchless commerce ; providing, at 
the same time, greatly increased securities for the 
popular education, morality, and religion. It is in 
view of this, that the world, now starting anew in 
the career of popular rights and popular intelligence ; 
prizing free governments, and devising measures to 
secure them, are reading more correctly the history 
of the English Commonwealth ; and estimating more 
justly the character of that great man who presided 
over it ; as well as yielding to those Protestant and 
Puritan principles that gave it its true glory, and 
which to this day have been working out the true 
interests of a wonderful and prosperous nation. 

Adopting these same principles, with a govern- 
ment more favorable to their development, and with 



imu''^''^''' ^' 



33 



religious sentiments in happy accordance, both alike 
demanding and encouraging the most enlarged, po- 
pular education ; we have it in our power, and we 
believe it to be our mission, through our institutions 
of learning, to preserve and transmit the grand secu- 
rities of human rights, happiness, and religion. 

We have an illustration of the influence of lite- 
rary institutions, when religiously conducted, nearer 
home, and of their bearing on the political interests 
of the nation. At the time when infidelity per- 
vaded this country, and a lax theology, with disso- 
luteness of morals ; when every hamlet of New 
England had its association of skeptics, and all was 
but a doubtful experiment ; it was then that one 
man, eminently a patriot, as a scholar and Christian 
came forth in defence of the truth. Here was edu- 
cated intellect, girded and guided by religious prin- 
ciple ; that one man arrested and turned back the 
tide of a deep and swelling infidelity. And how 
was this done ? The illustrious Dioiglit was at the 
head of Yale College, surrounded with mind gath- 
ered from every part of the land, fired and fevered 
with the spirit of infidel philosophy. That mass of 
mind was seized, and educated, and controlled by a 
higher mind under the sanctions of a divine religion- 
Through these associated minds, thus educated under 
Christian principle, the whole land was pervaded 
with intelligent perceptions of truth ; and religion 
again came forth in her true alliance and divine 
power. 

It was through this college, that one man thus 
spoke to a nation and the world ; and but for this 

8 







34 



college in its multiplied associations, lie liad spoken 
comparatively in vain. From this higli position, 
reflecting minds and responsive hearts carried and 
diffused abroad the charm of his genius and the 
glow of his piety, as inferior orbs carry beautifully 
and brightly along their shining way to the very 
bosom of night, the benignant beams of the noon- 
day sun. 

Time would fail me to tell what colleges have 
done, both directly and indirectly, for the intellec- 
tual and moral culture of the world ; its civil ad- 
vancement and its political security. Their demand 
is nowhere so great, nor their benign influence so 
wide and apparent, as in connection with free gov- 
ernments. Could we summon the statesmen, the 
priests, the scholars, the pastors and teachers that 
have gone from them, and gather the fruits of their 
intelligence, industry, and piety, we should garner at 
once almost all the golden sheaves that have ripened 
on these fields for two hundred years. 

It was not alone, that the Puritans established 
their colleges in New England, because they were 
wTiat they were ; but it is because they early estab- 
lished their colleges, that New England is now what 
it is. And being what we are, it is our mission and 
duty to establish colleges through the land, that, 
when other generations shall come, the whole nation 
may be w^hat we are, and what New England is. 
Had our whole land these institutions this moment, 
who would not have more hope, and less fear, if fear 
at all, for the future of his country ? How can a 
religiously educated, intelligent people be any thing 






35 



hut free f And otlierwise, what people ever loere or 
ever can he free t 

There must ever be in a country like ours, to 
preserve it from ruin, an intelligent, pervading and 
governing 'popular influence^ which nothing but in- 
stitutions such as we contemplate can possibly secure. 
It is as essential to the safety of popular movements 
and control, as the all-pervading laws of nature that 
bind the spheres. Before the temptings of enter- 
prise and the elastic energies of the age, there will 
constantly rise and rush to stations of influence mul- 
titudes of men, whether educated or not, whether 
guided by moral principle or not. Hence the de- 
mand for educated mind, fortified with intelligent, 
religious principle, to meet and control them in every 
field where they go. An absolute necessity is laid 
upon us. Our very existence depends upon it. 
From educated mind and moral power we have 
nothing on which to fall back for protection. We 
have no royalty of birth, no nobility, no privileged 
classes, nor established orders where responsibility 
shall rest. 

Admitting the value of these institutions, it may 
be asked, Are they demanded at this time beyond 
the present supply ? To this we answer unhesitating- 
ly. They are demanded. The peculiar structure of 
our society, as well as its rapid increase, requires 
new colleges at once. For the purpose of access not 
only, but for their direct bearing on the communities 
needing them, and their influence towards creating 
and sustaining all subordinate institutions, they should 



';?;rV^llWi?i 



36 



be reared in our growing comm unities, as central 
orbs, to enlighten and cbeer tbe circles of sympathy 
around them. 

The sons of the West must be educated at home, 
in their own institutions ; in institutions so richly 
endowed and wisely governed, as shall awaken intel- 
ligent convictions of the value of education, and in- 
spire the taste and desire for its attainment. There 
is no such security for the creation and culture of in- 
telligence and the moral elevation of a people, as the 
planting among them of literary institutions, prop- 
erly endowed and religiously conducted. They send 
their cheering light into every family, and call out 
from almost every house some favorite son, who shall 
link its reputation and destinies to the circles of edu- 
cated and refined life. 

We would give to the West what the East so 
richly enjoys. But it may be asked. Cannot the 
West provide for herself? We answer, No. The 
communities of the East did not provide for them- 
selves. Foreign benevolence aided in the creation 
and endowment of Eastern colleges, such as they 
were. And the West now needs, not such institu- 
tions as were given to New England and the East at 
first, but such as we now enjoy, fully endowed, and 
able to meet the demands of the age. 

Inferior institutions will not do for the wide 
world of the West. Its strong and ardent minds 
need the most solid aliment ; its bold and daring 
spirit, the wisest guidance and a strong control. 
Her sons might be educated to come into the arena 
of political life ; to the framing and ministering of 






-^■■■■■■■^■■^■^■■■^HMWaHIK^.. 



•3T 



law ; to the preacliing and defence of religion, in 
common and in connection with those who are reared 
in our older institutions of learning, and in the 
boasted halls of Jesuit acumen and discipline. Hence 
we need a hundred fold more than was required for 
these older colleges in their infancy. 

Societies now forming at the West have no 
infancy. They are composed of men already ad- 
vanced, holding common trusts, and on an equality 
with ourselves. They are to be fitted for the same 
service, and public interests, and responsibilities, to 
which we are summoned. For all this, they require 
institutions as richly furnished as our own. To pre- 
serve a desirable and safe equahty, favorable alike 
to us and to them, we must give them all the secu- 
rities of intellectual and moral culture which we 
enjoy. 

The communities at the West are branches of 
our own household ; who, in enterprise and energy 
have gone from us, leaving behind them an inheri- 
tance of common rights ; and they now demand of 
us, in equity, the creation for them of privileges 
where they go, equal to what they have left to us. 

More than this : the part they are to act on that 
mighty field for themselves and for us, and the 
influence they are to send back upon us, require 
that we secure to them the means of intellectual and 
moral culture, so essential to the trust they receive 
and the part they are to act. 

We deprecate the idea of men coming up from 
the West, resolute and strong, rough and reckless, 
pleading their claims to popular favor, and pressing 



'MW:&&Mi&M90S^M^m 



38 



their way to our lialls of legislation, conscious of 
their growing importance and numerical ascendency ; 
loquacious, unscrupulous, despising the refinements 
of educated life, and spurning the restraints of moral 
affinities. Such men can be met with no reasoning ; 
silenced by no argument ; nor governed by any 
considerations but of selfish interest and sectional 
policy. 

We deprecate the idea that the church must 
receive her ministry from any class of men, however 
pious and spiritual, who have not in a good measure 
the resources and refinements of intellectual culture 
and education, adequate to the advances of the pop- 
ular mind and the demands of the a.2:e. 

What if New England had been obliged to wait 
for her colleges till she became able to establish and 
endow such as she now requires and enjoys ? She 
had never been New Enojland at all. If the West 
must wait till able to establish and endow such 
institutions of learninof as she now needs, and as the 
best good of our whole country demands that she 
should have, who can write the future history of 
this country without dismay ? 

The great questions and commanding interests 
crowding on us for adjustment, must be met with 
intelligent, religious principle, and with a just ap- 
preciation of the general good, and a responsibility 
which uneducated and depraved minds cannot com- 
prehend. 



There is another important consideration. Edu- 
cation, to be what it should be, and what it has been. 






■IL.. 



39 



must be, to a great extent, gratuitous. Hence we 
need such institutions and endowments as shall meet 
this exigency. 

We would open in all our colleges allurements 
to industry and application, and a high intellectual 
culture. We would not have our sons aspiring to 
the sacred office oppressed with poverty, and chilled 
by the pittance of charity. We would have them 
encouraged in their hopes to reach the pul2:>it un- 
trammelled, and free from all painful associations 
and invidious distinctions. We are looking with an 
intense interest to this end ; and we do not intend 
to relax exertion. We see no interests nor insti- 
tutions rising any where to fill our place, or do the 
work to which we are called. 

We were summoned to this work by the voice 
of an inspiring Providence. We entered upon it 
with reflection and prayer. We have steadily pur- 
sued it, with too feeble resources we grant ; but we 
have been amply rewarded. We have seen noble 
institutions at the West, struggling with adversity, 
and ready to die, revived, and cheered ; some placed 
beyond the need of further aid from the Society ; 
others holding on their way, and about to retire 
gratefully from our patronage. 

We have assumed the care of more ; and others 
still are pleading for aid in localities and crowded 
communities allied to us by every tie of interest and 
affection. 

We have excited hopes that have lighted the 
entire West — cheered the dwellers of the valley 
and the mountain range, — inspired life in the so- 






^M^dtaMk 



40 



journers far beyond tliem ; and voices have come 
over from the golden, coast, and from the rich 
Oregon, beseeching our aid. To the outstretched 
hands of this distant brotherhood we have already 
given the first fruits of our patronage; and the 
millions upon millions coming up between us, are 
all to be partakers with us in the common inheri- 
tance of our fathers, and to share with us the vast 
trusts of common liberty and a common Christianity. 
While the radiating centre of national dominion 
shall be there, distinct and permanent as its moun- 
tain range, let the morning light of the cheering 
East, in all the purity and glory of its rising, fall 
upon it ; and let it greet the resplendent hues of 
the gorgeous West, attracting and cementing, in 
unity and affection, all of this mighty continent of 
freedom and religion. So shall it realize to the 
world the prophetic promise, and God's benediction 
to Christ and his church. 



\ 



Illlib 



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020 775 916 8 




